


The Power of Myth

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-24
Updated: 2006-03-24
Packaged: 2019-02-02 18:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12731850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: Some stories need to be told again and again.





	The Power of Myth

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

  
Author's notes: Implied Character Death, but this is a story that takes place FAR in the future.  


* * *

"Tell me again, old one," the child demands. "Tell me about Teal'c and his adventures."

"Patience, child," the old man says, settling down by the fire. They are mirror images of each other. The youth is tiny, his caramel colored skin gleaming in the firelight. He is potential, the future realized. There is no color to the elder's skin, as if it had been bleached through time. Even the tiny wisps of hair left on his pale scalp have lost any semblance to silver they might once have had. All that's left is the spark of bright blue eyes, not dulled by time, never dull at all.

"Please, old one." The child squirms until the old one holds out his arm and lets the boy rest in its curve.

"Very well," the old one says. He tries to make himself sound weary, but truthfully, he loves this tale as well.

"Many years ago, long before even I was born, there was a Jaffa named Teal'c. He was the honored First Prime of the false god Apophis."

The child leans closer and closes his eyes.

"Teal'c was a wise man, even then. He tested Apophis, proved that the man could not see all, as he claimed. But Teal'c had a family, a wife and a child. His position kept them safe. He could do nothing, not while his brothers still believed Apophis to be a god."

Leaning against the old man's chest, the child sucks on his thumb. The elder cradles him carefully. 

"Then came the day Apophis chose a mate. He stole the beautiful Sha're from her home and used her to be a host to the evil Amonet."

"A host?"

"You are too young to remember the Jaffa were once dependant on symbiotes -- the infant Goa'ulds who could implant themselves in humans and control their bodies. This is what happened to the Lady Sha're." The old man pauses. He hugs the child close to himself for a moment, then goes on.

"The Lady's husband and his friends came after her. But they were not strong enough to defeat the false god. Teal'c, however, saw that they were noble and true, so when Jack O'Neill pleaded for help..."

"That's when Teal'c turned his staff weapon on his fellow Jaffa," the child supplies.

So like a child, the elder thought, he remembers all the fighting without any of the emotion involved. "Yes, but only because they would not understand. These strangers, they knew Apophis was not a god. That is the beginning of Teal'c's exile with the Tauri."

"Where he became part of SG-1 and had many adventures."

"Yes child, many adventures. Until the day he returned and won freedom for his people."

"And then took a consort. Is it true that Teal'c's consort was as beautiful as Teal'c is strong?"

The old man coughs to hide his smile. "So they say. But I thought you wanted to hear about Teal'c's adventures. Perhaps the one where he and O'Neill battled the Replicators? Or the time he confronted Apophis and demanded freedom for the Jaffa."

"'Let my people go,' and when he didn't, Teal'c killed his son Klorel..."

"You're mixing up your stories again, child," the elder chastises.

"He has had enough of tales for today," a deep voice rumbles from behind them.

"Great-grandfather!" The child jumps up and runs into his arms.

"Ja'ak." The other embraces the child. "Your mother awaits you."

"But I don't want a bath!"

"All warriors must bathe," he tells the boy. The child nods with the regard of one long accustomed to obeying his great-grandfather and runs off, with a wave for the elder.

"Telling stories again, my love?"

The old man smiles and lets his lover capture him in his strong arms. "Tales of long ago."

"You would make me out to be a god. I do not wish that."

"Not a god. A hero worthy of myths and legends. You deserved to be remembered, my Teal'c."

"As do you, my Daniel." He kisses his lover, more than mere love in his touch. The human is old and fragile, precious beyond all imagining.

The old man laughs. "I will be, though perhaps your love of my appearance has influenced the others."

"You are beautiful...."

"In your eyes. Looks fade with time. Friends die..."

Another moment of silence, but this is comforting, for they both think fondly of the friends who have gone before.

"I often wonder what O'Neill would say if he could see all this." And the warrior points to the village, full of thriving Jaffa, this youngest generation the first to never see a Larval Goa'uld.

"What makes you think he's not watching right now?"

"I do not have your optimism, my love," he says and tightens his hold, for fear the fragile old man will simply fade away in his arms.

"I have gotten contemplative in my old age. Teal'c...don't fear for me."

"I am an old man as well," he whispers, "And when you have gone, I will refuse any Tretonin."

"Ah, the old method. Is this why you never allowed yourself to be inoculated? To follow me into death?"

"I will follow you wherever you shall go. Just as you followed me into my darkest hours."

"And so, love, another legend is born."

A grin, then, "So be it."

end


End file.
